5000 developers' licenses for HeroEngine

SWTOR platform sees sharp rise in interest in 2012

Idea Fabrik's HeroEngine is now licensed by over 5000 developers, after surge of interest in MMO games.

"In January we have been inundated with thousands of enquiries from studios, large and small, more than in any other period in the company's existence," said COO Neil Harris

"The number of developers' licenses to create games on the HeroEngine is now more than 5,000. The increase in interest in online game development has been fuelled by the excitement about successful launches last year of MMO games from EA and from Trion Worlds."

The biggest title to use the technology so far has been Bioware's recent release, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

"We crossed a major milestone once large games built on HeroEngine proved that our server technology can handle a hugely successful game. This lowers the perceived risk of developers in adopting the HeroEngine platform. HeroEngine crossed a crucial inflection point in terms of its adoption by online game developers."

Idea Fabrik acquired the engine in 2010, and last year began to roll out its HeroCloud service for 3D games.

"We've been watching HeroEngine's evolution over the last several years," added Wanda Meloni of M2 Research.

"The technology has really become quite mature. My guess is, you're going to see HeroEngine not only continue to be a dominant platform for MMOs, but that the reference products the company is developing will illustrate that it is viable for other genres of games as well."

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